Talkline | Oct. 13, 2025 - MetroNews Talkline

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Speaker 1 (00:13):
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Speaker 1 (01:09):
Welcome into the program. I hope you had a great
weekend and hope your week is off to a great start.
Weather's going to be fantastic. Thanks for listening in on
one of our great Metro News radio stations across the
great state of West Virginia. Or if you're watching on
the Metro News TV app. That's where Jake Link, our
video producer, excels. He is handling the video side of things.

(01:30):
Joe Nelson and Kyle Wiggs taking care of the audio side. Today.
Phone number is eight hundred seven sixty five Talk eight
hundred and seven sixty five eight two five five. You
can text the show at three oh four Talk three
oh four. Coming up this morning, Jonathan Savage will join
us from London. He has the latest on the Gaza
cease fire. President Trump speaking to the Israeli government today.

(01:56):
He just spoke in Jerusalem this morning. He's headed to
Egypt for an official signing of that peace agreement. We'll
talk to Jonathan Savage about that. Get the details. Joe
Bracado stops by Brad Macklheenny and we'll visit with the
new US Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia,
Matt Harvey. In the second hour of the program, Treasurer
Larry Pack as well. TJ's off today. He is back

(02:19):
tomorrow eight hundred and seven to sixty five Talk the
phone number three h four Talk three oh four the
text line. Earlier this morning, the remaining living hostages taken
by Hamas on October seventh, twenty three were returned to Israel.
President Trump spoke to the Israeli government this morning and
is on his way to Egypt. As I just mentioned,
to discuss today's history and tomorrow's challenges in the Middle East.

(02:42):
Fairmont State political science professor friend of the show, Robert
Bolton joins us on Metro News talk line.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
Robert, good morning, Good morning, Dave. How you do one today?

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Doing quite well, Glad you could join us. Put into
context the events of the last couple of days, but
especially today of this piece deal, the ceasefire agreement being signed.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
Well, I think the most notable thing about this is
that this is the closest chance thus far for both
Israel and the Palestinian people to have an actual, permanent
piece since the events of October twenty twenty three. Hamas
has certainly given up a significant amount of leverage in

(03:28):
future negotiations by surrendering the approximately twenty hostages who are
still living, along with the remains of a few hundred
other hostages. With that being said, I am a strong
believer that the devil is in the details, and I'm
somewhat of a pessimist by nature, so I think it's
still very much remains to be seen whether or not

(03:51):
the ceasefire will hold and a lasting piece will be
forged in the Middle East.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
In the immediate Robert, the release of the hostages, getting
them back to Israel. That has to be a significant
step given what has happened the last couple of years.
Hamas was really it was left with no choice but
to agree to something, wasn't it.

Speaker 4 (04:13):
Quite Frankly, I don't think that they were necessarily obliged
to agree to anything. Hamas is a terrorist group that
has already proven that, by hook or by crook, that
it is willing to do whatever it needs to maintain power,
even if that results in the deaths of tens of
thousands of Palestinians civilians. Also, I will say, though, that

(04:37):
by surrendering these two twenty civilian hostages, they are giving
up a major negotiation tool in the future, So they
are taking some risk. I have to admit that that
is an exceptional circumstance that if you had asked me
a month ago would that have occurred? I probably would
have said is not going to happen.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
What are the challenges that lie ahead, both short term
and long term?

Speaker 4 (05:05):
Well, in the short term is convincing Hamas to disarm,
And this is where I'm most skeptical that this piece
still will result in a permanent cease fire and a
long term piece in the Middle East because Hamas has
no desire to give up control of the Gaza Strip.

(05:27):
They seized power in a election after a two thousand
and six election in which they used violence and intimigation
against their political rivals, and they've ruled the Gaza Strip
since then. When you look at what happens, the only
reason I really see there's any realistic prospect of the

(05:48):
Hamas leadership disarming its group is because, quite frankly, if
you're a Hamas fighter right now or Hamas leader, you
have a very short shelf life. Most of the leaders
who planned the original attack in October twenty twenty three
at this point that are dead or have been captured.
In regard to the longer term prospects and challenges that

(06:11):
are present in the region, I think if this piece
skill holds, it's going to be relocating the Palestinian refugees
roughly eighty percent of the population has been displaced over
the last two years, and also rebuilding the region. The
Gaza Strip was already a heavily impoverished region before this

(06:32):
war began, and pretty much the totality of its infrastructure,
its public services, its government has been wiped out over
the last two years. So being able to build up
an economically viable region that can meet the needs of
its citizens is I think undoubtedly the key challenge. And

(06:55):
one last thing I'll say in regard to that is
is why do people turn to tear groups like CAMAS
to begin with? Obviously, ideology, religion, other factors may play
a role, but I think in large part it usually
people are willing to support a group like Camas because
that they feel there's no alternative, that they're desperate. So

(07:15):
once you give people an actual future that appears brighter
than what they're living right now, that's when I think
peace will actually lock into place.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Robert Bolton joining us Fairmont State University political science professor
Robert how much of what you just talked about there
is contingent on countries like Qatar, Turkey, Iran even as
a matter of fact, also being on board because Hamas
Hamas cannot generate its own revenue, if you will, it
has to get it from somewhere. How much of this

(07:46):
is contingent on those other countries in the Mid East
also being on board and quite frankly putting a little
pressure on Hamas to make certain that this continues. To
see this through, I.

Speaker 4 (07:57):
Think it's a huge part of it now. In regard
the Qatar, Egypt, Turkey, or the United States, yes, these
are countries that are willing to lay money down on
the table for reinvestment into that area. Iran, in my opinion,
is more of a wild card. Iran in many ways
was the one who prompted and gave the green light

(08:19):
to Hamas to launch the attacks on October seventh, twenty
twenty three. There are a variety of reasons why they
did so, but they do view they are an existential
threat to Israel, and I think they're the ones most
likely to oppose any permanent peace deal because they really

(08:41):
view Hamas as their last major ally in the region.
The Hutis and Gemmen have suffered significant casualties and much
of their leadership has been decimated over the last few months.
Asad has been overthrown in Syria, Hezbillah has seen its
leader ship decapitated, and the Russians are currently distracted by

(09:04):
the conflict in Ukraine. So Iran doesn't have many allies
left besides a Mos, and Hamas, for similar reasons, doesn't
have any many allies left besides Iran. The one advantage
though now versus a year ago. Is Iran has seen
that President Trump is willing to use military force against it,

(09:26):
notably in the instance of the strike on the nuclear
reactor a few months ago. And also Israel has shown
that when Iran retaliates, they can usually use an effective
missile defense system that limits overall casualties. So Iran undoubtedly
is going to attempt to put the brakes on this
piece still, But how much is Hamas willing to listen

(09:49):
to that versus when the threat of being targeted and
a strike by the Israeli or American military remains to
be seen.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Robert, one thing that I've certainly learned over the last
couple of years watching this conflict and observing others is
you cannot apply Western values to the Mid East. And
what I mean by that to us, it makes perfect sense.
Why would you trade war and poverty? Why would you
want that over economic growth, growing cities, growing better lives.

(10:24):
That seems like an easy piece, Like that's an easy deal,
That's an easy trade off for us in the West.
Is it really about force? Is it really about strength
and power when it comes to the Mid East?

Speaker 4 (10:36):
I do think that there is some of that. Also
when you look at, particularly with Palestinian people, there is
this perspective among them that they've been amongst themselves, that
they've been ticked on, and that after the creation of
Israel in the late nineteen forties, that they were expelled

(10:57):
from regions that historically belong to them. I don't personally
share that view, but nonetheless that is the perception that
they have for themselves. So when they say all this
is our ancestral land, there is somewhat of a nationalist
and also a religious impulse present there where they say, look,
I don't care if I'm wealthy, I refuse to exercise

(11:24):
or recognize the existence of Israel. Now that's among the
most radicals met radical factions among the Palestinian people, among Hamas.
I don't think that the vast majority of people probably
actually feel that way. They may tentatively offer support to Hamas,
but most people, when you get down to it, are
more concerned about their day to day lives. They want

(11:45):
to make sure that their children are being fed, that
they have a safe home, that they can live their
lives unolested. So if it does appear that this peace
process is going to produce survivable results, you might see
I'm on the Palestinian people and adding of support for

(12:05):
him as.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Robert Bolton, Fairmont State University Political science professor. Always appreciate
the insights, Robert, thank you very much.

Speaker 4 (12:13):
No prom Dave glad to be on absolutely.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Coming up, Jonathan Savage will join us Fox News Radio.
President Trump spoke to the Israeli government this morning. We'll
hear about what the President had to say in Israel.
In fact, I just saw Air Force one taken off
headed for Egypt for that Mid East Peace summit. Will
continue as talk line rolls on from the Encove Insurance
Studios back in a moment.

Speaker 5 (12:38):
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Speaker 1 (14:00):
Text line is three h four Talk threeh four. Phone
number is eight hundred and seven sixty five Talk eight
hundred seven sixty five eight two five five. Coming up
bottom of the hour, Brad mclhenny will stop by some
issues for homeschooling parents trying to purchase supplies for the

(14:22):
school year using the Hope Scholarship. We'll discuss that later
with State Treasurer Larry Packhourse. Treasurer's office administers the Hope Scholarship,
but Brad will explain why some homeschool parents are upset
and frustrated with the system in place. Joe Bricato stops
by we'll talk some football as well. Let's go to
London where Fox News Radio Jonathan Savage is standing by

(14:43):
Jonathan and historic day. This morning the hostages returned. President
Trump addressing the Israeli government. First of all, Good morning, Jonathan.

Speaker 7 (14:52):
Yeah, good morning. A day that's gonna live long in
the memory of many Israeli the day that two years
and six days of trauma came to an end for
the twenty hostages who arrived home, alive and safe today
from Gaza. President Trump, as you say in Israel as well,
addressing the Kinesse, the Parliament of Israel, in one sense

(15:15):
renewing his country's relationship in bond with Israel, but also
telling Benjamin nittan Yahoo that you're not a war anymore
and you're not going to achieve anything by continuing to fight.

Speaker 1 (15:28):
Why is that such a significant message, Jonathan?

Speaker 7 (15:33):
I think partly because there are people within Prime Minister
Natanya Who's government who did not want this war to end,
who want Gaza to be annexed and occupied and settled
by Israel and the West Banks as well, and want
a mass destroyed, and were perhaps less concerned about the
fate of the hostages. Benjamin Nittanya, who has been criticized

(15:56):
by some Israelis over the last two years, partly for
not taking accountability for the failings in security that led
to the October seventh massacre that started the war, but
also allegedly prolonging the war in order to prolong his
political career. These are allegations, of course, that he's strongly denies.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
Fox News Radios Jonathan Savage joining us the twenty hostages returned. Jonathan,
what do we know? Are they healthy or have they
made any statements yet? What do we know about them
and their conditions?

Speaker 7 (16:27):
Well, I think they are probably as healthy as they
could be given the conditions in which they've been held
for the last two years. Some of them don't look
quite recognizable compared to the photographs we've seen of them
and the way they were before they went they were
taken into Gaza, into those tunnels. But I've seen many
pictures of hostages looking perhaps gaunt or weak, but with

(16:49):
huge smiles on their faces and tears on their cheeks
as they embraced their loved ones. There will now be
time required to physically and mentally heal, but for many
of them that's for tomorrow. For today, it's just about
the joy and relief of freedom.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
So what has the reaction around Israel, around Jerusalem been today?

Speaker 7 (17:12):
There's been scenes of wild celebration in the streets in
Tel Aviv's Hostage Square, which has been the focal point
of vigils of protests. There being people waving Israeli in
American flags with balloons in the shape of the yellow ribbons,
which has symbolized the flight of the hostages. And when
their return was announced on the big screens, there singing, dancing, crying,

(17:37):
just overwhelming joy and relief for a country which has
endured two years of national trauma.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
Fox News radios Jonathan Savage joining us mentioned his talk line,
Jonathan just saw that Air Force one is touchdown in Egypt.
So what's the next step today for President Trump in
this Mid East summit in Egypt.

Speaker 7 (17:55):
Well, he's got to sign the Gaza Deal officially as
seat of symbolic signing with other world leaders. More than
twenty world leaders are there, British Prime Minister, French President,
leaders from Arab and Muslim countries. That the Palestinian authority
is represented by its president Macmuda Bath. So there's a
bit of a victory lap for President Trump there as

(18:15):
there was in Israel. But also there's some serious business
to be done because after the end of the war
begins the negotiations the future of Gaza and the future
of Israel and what President Trump described he hopes at
historic dawn in a new Middle East. So well, the
first phase of his twenty point plan has been worked out,

(18:39):
has been completed. There are an awful lot of obstacles
remain in the future of a mass and the governance
of Gaza, and they're going to start to make progress
from that today, it's hoped.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Just spoke to a guest who thought that the biggest
challenge of the next biggest challenge would be disarming hum Us.
How do you see it, Jonathan.

Speaker 7 (18:59):
Absolutely, that's a huge challenge. I mean what we've seen
already in Gaza today, we've seen mass fighters turn up
at the local hospital posing with their weapons. Seven thousand
mass fighters reportedly recalled to their security forces to reassert
control over parts of Gaza that Israeli troops recently left
photos of them standing on the streets holding automatic weaponry.

(19:22):
So Hamas has not agreed to disarm as yet. That's
an important part of this Israel insists they must do,
and what will happen If Israel insistent a mass disarms
and a mass doesn't, maybe that won't be the end
of the war. Certainly, people hope that Hamas will in
their minds come to their senses and move them and
turn a page in this In this book now.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
I have saying that in read speculation and concern that
this is an opportunity. Hamasi is using this as a
smoke screen, if you will, a chance to rearm and
re up and get ready for the next round of violence.

Speaker 7 (19:57):
No doubt there are many suspicious of Hamas. The trust levels,
of course are incredibly low. You'll have an entity which
seeks the destruction of Israel coming to terms on a
truth deal with Israel, so there's not going to be
much in the way of trust or good will or
good faith. That's why I think it's seen as important

(20:18):
to get together an international coalition which we'll have the
trust not just of the Palestinians, but the Israelis as well,
to act as a buffer between Gaza and Israel during
this short term period while they're figuring out what the
future of the territory is going to be.

Speaker 1 (20:31):
Fox News Radios. Jonathan Savage. Jonathan appreciate the update, Thank
you so much.

Speaker 3 (20:36):
Thank you coming up.

Speaker 1 (20:37):
Brad McElhenny will join us. We'll bring it back to
the Mountain State. There are some frustrations boiling have been
boiling among homeschool parents trying to purchase supplies through the
Hope Scholarship program. He'll explain that a little bit later.
Joe Braccatto will join us. It was another full weekend
of high school football around the state. We'll recap the
top games, take a look ahead to week eight. Also,

(21:00):
gotta mention Vegas doesn't always get it right. Thundering Herd
underdogs at home a statement win over Old Dominion on Saturday.
Defense played great, offensive line looked really good. Quarterback Carlos
del Rio Wilson coming into his home. So the Thundering
Herd feeling pretty good to start the work week. Getting

(21:23):
ready for what Texas State coming to town on Saturday
for homecoming in Huntington. Three oh four Talk three oh
four is the text line eight hundred seven to sixty
five talk. That's the phone number. Joe Nelson is our operator,
standing by awaiting your call. Brad mclhonney will join us next.
I hope you're having a great start of the week.
This is talk Linel Metro News for forty years, the

(21:44):
voice of West Virginia. It is ten thirty time to
get a news update. Let's check in on the Metro
News radio network. Find out what's happening across the great
state of West Virginia.

Speaker 8 (21:57):
West Virginia Metro News em Jeff Jenkins in World At
Numbers in county school districts in West Virginia being finalized
and many are once again expected to show a drop
of enrollment. Randolph County Schools has seen a significant drop.
Superintendent Sean Dilly says seven hundred students have left the
system in recent years.

Speaker 9 (22:12):
That's basically a middle school we've lost. And we've continued
to try to operate and maintain all the facilities and
support all of the schools, and as we have traditionally
done in funding, formula just does not support continuing on
that path.

Speaker 8 (22:25):
Really says four hundred to seven hundred either being homeschooled
or using the Hope Scholarship on other education options at
Randolph County school were voted this week to close two schools.
WV will hear from its new president this afternoon.

Speaker 10 (22:38):
President Michael T. Benson is set to deliver his first
State of the University address at three o'clock this afternoon
from the WVU College of Law. The speech will come
at the beginning of the Faculty Senate meeting. According to
the university, Benson will be discussing his vision for wvu's future.
Benson has been at the helm of the university for
about twelve weeks now, and gave a little piece of
his strategic plan back in August during the West Virginia

(23:00):
Business Summit with wvu's new Mission Statement, but there's likely
much more in store for the speech today. I'm Aaron
Parker for wv metronews dot com.

Speaker 8 (23:09):
Today is the Columbus Day holiday, so many officers are
closed to the government offices mainly are closed. No mail
will be delivered today because of the holiday. You're listening
to Metro News for forty years, the Voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 11 (23:23):
The high school football season continues Friday night with our
Game of the Week Cable Midland and Parkersburg presented by Gomar.
You can also watch Princeton and Beckley Montcalm against Greenbrier, West,
Parkersburg South, and Morgantown, Scott and Rohan County and Winfield
versus Shady Spring, all on Metro News TV brought to
you by the Thrasher Group, Marshall University and the Mountaineer

(23:43):
Challenge Academy. Stream the action live on Metro News Television.
Download the free Metro News Television app or visit DOBV
metronewstv dot com for more information.

Speaker 12 (23:55):
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(24:15):
engineer progress in the great state of West Virginia.

Speaker 11 (24:18):
Find out what CEC can do for you visit CECI
NC dot com.

Speaker 8 (24:23):
Governor Patrick Morrisey says we shouldn't take for granted those
who lay their lives on the line fighting fires.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Thanks go out not only to the fire making we're
here today, but to the families of those every day
after watch They're loved.

Speaker 13 (24:38):
Ones die to harms.

Speaker 8 (24:41):
Morrisey spoke of the annual Firefighters Memorial service Sunday outside
the State Culture Center beside the State Capitol. Families of
firefighters who have died fighting blazes were on hand. From
the Metro News anchor desk, I'm Jeff Jenkins.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Joe Bricado coming up a couple of minutes from now.
Matt Harvey will join us at eleven six, the former
Jefferson County prosecutor now US Attorney for the Northern District
of West Virginia. A couple of texts three h four
talk three to four. I wish there was at least
one investigative reporter left out there who would put together
an honest story on exactly how much this peace deal

(25:38):
and Nobel Peace Prize is going to cost the US
and the taxpayer. In my soul, I know it was
quote bought. I've heard already about a new military based
for Cutter, and I hope all networks would run the story.
So it is obviously not a partisan whack job wishful thinking,
says the Texter. Dave advised you so called expert guess

(26:00):
that this is not a ceasefire but a done deal.
Hamas giving up hostages gets Israel off its back and
gives them time to rearm and plot new attacks. Israel
and the US can't keep waging war on Hamas or
else there's no peace deal for Trump. We're in a
rearming and reorganization period for Hamas. How long will it
take before the next coordinated attack? And will the US

(26:22):
and Israel keep attacking Hamas to suppress them? Those are
the questions asks the text or says the texture three
or four talk three or four is the tax line
eight hundred and seven sixty five eight two five five.
That is the phone number coming up. Second hour of
Metro News talk Line, going to talk to Larry Pack
He is the West Virginia State Treasurer. He is also

(26:43):
in his office are responsible for administering the Hope Scholarship.
Of course, that's the scholarship available through the state to
provide funding for and financial support for homeschooling families or
pursuing education outside the public school system. Well homeschool families
and parents have sent dozens of written messages to express
frustration over the online purchasing system for school supplies through

(27:08):
the Hope Scholarship. Brad mclinn he took a look at
some of those messages, has a story post at wv
metro news dot com and joins us on Metro News talkline. Brad,
good morning, Oh Hi, good morning.

Speaker 14 (27:19):
I was trying to figure out how an investigative reporter
could actually apply a full financial accounting of the peace
deal in Gaza, and I came up blank on how
you would actually calculate the finances with a calculator.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
Yeah, that's a good point, all right, Brad. Brad, what's
got parents of homeschool families using the Hope Scholarship frustrated
this fall?

Speaker 14 (27:43):
Yeah, so this is an aspect of the Hope Scholarship
that you might not be aware of if you were
not one of these homeschool families. I mean, the broader
issue in West Virginia is the Hope Scholarship is financial
support for families who have left or or are not
entering their children in the public school system. And the

(28:04):
issue we often hear about is how many students overall
are doing that? What is the financial effect overall to
the state. But this is an aspect of it. Homeschool families,
by their nature have highly individualized instruction. It's you know,
you have to live up to certain standards, but families
have chosen this to have their own flexibility to go

(28:27):
about the lessons in the way that they want to.
The Hope Scholarship provides roughly five thousand dollars a year
for those families, and there is a fairly limited window
of time for homeschool families to use it to get
their supplies. If you're a family in private school, it's

(28:49):
pretty much a cookie cutter like you get. You might
apply the Hope Scholarship dollars, but you're applying it specifically
to what the private school asks for homeschool families. The
state has tried to balance two things. One is the
flexibility I just described for the families themselves to use

(29:11):
those dollars for the educational resources that match what they
want to do. But the other is that these are
public dollars and the state does not want a situation
where there is a fraud or misuse of those taxpayer dollars.
It's the public good to try to accomplish that tricky balance.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
The state a few years ago a couple of years ago.

Speaker 14 (29:37):
Entered into a multimillion dollar contract with Student First Technologies,
which has a system that people call theopay. Theopay has
a lot going on, and so if you can imagine
you're a mom or a dad with a homeschool kid,
you want to get onto a vendor of your choosing.

(30:00):
The first thing that THEOPA does is it uses AI
to assess whether that's an approved expense. The second thing
that happens is that there are humans who back that
up to make sure that the sale is okay. Well,
all of that, in practice has over a couple of years,
received a lot of concern from parents that it's clunky,

(30:22):
that it's not efficient, that sometimes it rejects like multiple
reams of paper because it wants you to buy just
one ream at a time. Or you've put in for
a laptop, and you know, in the times that we have,
the prices can fluctuate, and over the time that it
takes to approve, suddenly the price that you put in

(30:43):
for isn't the price anymore. So, you know, I got
on into this and I thought, well, I would like
to hear, you know, what kinds of official concerns these
parents are putting forward.

Speaker 1 (30:54):
So I asked the Treasurer's office for it.

Speaker 14 (30:57):
Thank you to them. They cooperated on both ends. I
will say, you know, we agreed that there should be
some redacting of names and identifying information. Didn't want to
expose particular families, so they complied with that. That was
their wish too. But it did show that, particularly at
the start of the school year, as it has been

(31:19):
in January and August the last couple of years, during
buying periods, a lot of concern from family frustration with
the clunkiness of this buying system, delays in getting started,
and all of that, unfortunately for some families, has a
resulted in the feeling that you know, they'd like to
get started with school August September like everybody else, and

(31:41):
in some cases they haven't been able to get the
products that they believe they need to get that education rolling.

Speaker 1 (31:49):
That's a new state wide. Correspondent Brad Macklehenney joining us,
sounds like the bottom line is, Brad, there's government money involved,
There's going to be inefficiencies in the system. That's almost
a given anytime there's government money involved. But the vendor
here was it theopay student. First, they've caught the ire
of not just current parents. But this was an issue

(32:11):
last year, and it's been an issue in other states
for this vendor fulfilling these orders and fulfilling them in
a timely matter, hasn't it.

Speaker 14 (32:18):
Arkansas dropped them and has tried to claw back three
hundred thousand dollars. That's the dropping by Arkansas was maybe
a year ago, and the three hundred thousand dollars has
been more recently. I will say, I think Crasier Pack
will tell you this that the system that's been designed
in West Virginia is unique in the sense that it's

(32:40):
it's meant to be more flexible than what other states
are doing, but that flexibility results in complications. It's trying
to do a lot, and so it's been challenging. The
prior treasurer now Congressman Riley Moore, about this time last
year said that if Student First Technologies didn't get its
act together, there would be a particular kind of storm

(33:02):
raining down. As it turned out, you know, there was
an election, and Riley Moore is now in Congress. So
this question has gone to the current Treasurer, Larry Pack,
and he acknowledged it. He was kind to give me
maybe half an hour of his time to talk our
way through this, and he described meetings every two weeks

(33:23):
with student first technologies just to apply constant pressure to
assure that this is going to improve. And he Treasure
Pack acknowledges that the system remains not perfect, but that
it's improved over time. Here are a couple questions. Though
everybody expects that the Hope Scholarship is going to be

(33:45):
more popular over time, that as it opens up to
all students, all non public students in West Virginia over
the next few years, that's going to result in a
higher student population participating, more pressure on the purchasing system
called theopay. And so you know, the state, I think,

(34:06):
needs to demonstrate continued improvement in satisfying the needs of
these families who have opted into a service that West
Virginia is providing.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
In theory, Brad, the system doesn't sound the idea. Isn't
that crazy that you have AI take a look at
an order first, but you have a human actually look
at it because AI may misinterpret something or like you said,
think you know you don't need to buy four reams
of paper, only need to buy one. In theory, I
like the idea. In practice, it gets clunky, especially and

(34:36):
here's the part I want to talk to Larry Pack
a little bit more about. If the legislature releases the
funds for Hope on was it July fifteenth that the
scholarship's funded, that's released to parents on August fifteenth? If
all the Hope Scholarship families are trying to purchase something
on August fifteenth, do it as soon as it comes out,
get it in early. I can see you getting a

(34:58):
backlog and trying to catch up to that and then
taking to the first of October or you know, middle
of the month here to try to catch up on
the backlog. That seems to be maybe where the state
could adjust. I don't know if it can or not.
Probably take the legislature the window for when that funding
becomes available.

Speaker 14 (35:15):
I think it's a legislative question. You've identified. There is
a pretty tight window. The Treasurer's office gets the money
available maybe Midsummer, and then takes some time to calculate,
all right, how many families are we dealing with who
deserves the money, and then they you know, they essentially
open up a window to make it available to families.

(35:38):
But that is essentially the start of the school year,
and so there's a rush of families trying to draw
down the dollars. They are up against sort of a
human limitation of Student First Technology employees trying to check
these orders to make.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Sure they're okay, ready to go.

Speaker 14 (35:55):
They're up against macroeconomics, like you know, the computer I
had described, against tariffs and everything else. Has the price
fluctuated on the computer during the time it's taken to
process the order. One thing that the legislature potentially could
do is dial back that window that everything is happening

(36:15):
and make it a broader period of time so that
the Treasurer's office and the families themselves, along with Student
First Technology have a little more runway to take care
of all these needs.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
Atch New Statewide Correspondent Brad McIlhenny read his story this
morning at wv Metronews dot com, and we'll speak with
State Treasurer Larry pac Little under an hour from now. Brad.
Always appreciate it, buddy, Nice talk to you on a Monday.

Speaker 14 (36:39):
Hey, thanks, Coming up, we'll.

Speaker 1 (36:40):
Talk high school football. Joe Bricado will join us. We'll
review the weekend that was next. We are there for
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Speaker 1 (38:08):
I already mentioned the herds wind over the weekend. Of course,
w on the bye week at UCF coming up this Saturday,
and we'll head into week number eight of the high
school football season. Joe Bricata was covering all things high
school football this past weekend. He joins us on Metro
News talk line, Joe, good morning, by good morning, dude.
What stood out to you in week number seven.

Speaker 17 (38:31):
That we have no longer that we no longer have
any Class Quada teams that are undefeated? Morgantown, as you saw,
Dave fell to a Martinsburg team that if anybody had
any inklings or ideas that this was going to be
a down year or a gettable year for people playing Martinsburg,
will the Bulldogs certainly had something to say about that.

(38:51):
And then also on Saturday, Jefferson picking up a big victory,
knocking GW from the ranks of the unbeaten thirty four
to thirty three. So the Cougars, that's team that's been
in the quarterfinals in the largest classification of the state's
four years running, got off to a bit of a
slow start at one and four, but they're now seemingly
back on the upswing and coming off a big victory

(39:12):
on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
Jefferson played such a brutal early schedule, Joe, Spring Mills, Martinsburg, Morgantown,
that's a tough way to start the season with those
five games.

Speaker 17 (39:21):
It is certainly no question about it. And when I
visited in the preseason, that's one of the things that
the head coach, Craig Hunter said that, you know, they're
really going to find out what they have over the
course of the first half of the season, and this
was kind of the one of the toughest games seemingly
on that schedule. They played Morgantown, they played Martinsburg, they
played Spring Mills. They've also this week got a loud

(39:43):
In County Virginia team that has seven victories. So certainly
the tests will continue to come. But a big, big
victory for the Cougars on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
You know pointed this game out on Friday when I
talk to Fred Joe. It wasn't at the top of
the bracket. It was actually at the bottom of the bracket.
But Parkersburg, say Mouth puts up five hundred and sixty
nine yards the win over Hurricane and now South Hey, look,
we're taking sixteen or twenty teams in the big schools
bracketing in four a couple of wins, it solidly can
put itself in position in the playoffs. And what maybe

(40:15):
was more of a kind of a rebuild year for South.

Speaker 17 (40:17):
Yeah, and with only twenty teams in Class Quad A, look,
if a team gets hot late in the season, no
matter how they started, it still looks like there could
be a spot or two available for teams outside of
the top eight to work their way in and potentially
have hosting rights in the opening round of the playoffs.
Certainly that's a tough lift for Parkersburg's out at two

(40:38):
and four, but look, there's there's spots that are going
to be open there, and it would seem that if
the Patriots or any other team that's currently in the
nine through sixteen window, there's ability to climb, no question.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
Talking to Mention New Sports Joe Bricato, what about Triple I,
Double A, Single I? What set out to you in
those brackets?

Speaker 17 (40:57):
Had a chance to see Princeton on Friday night and
a good performance over a one lost Greenbrier East team.
Princeton won thirty five to fourteen, so they are undefeated
in Triple A and they join Bridgeport in Chapmanville as
the only other two undefeated teams in Class Triple A.
There's a pretty good competition for the top spots in
Class double A, there's lots of undefeated teams. Of course,

(41:18):
you have Independence and Frankfurt at the top, the Patriot
six and oh the Falcons seven and zero. And you've
got three other unbeaten teams Dodgers, County, Logan and Mingo Central.
Interestingly enough, Logan will visit Mingo Central on Friday night.
Both of those teams currently at six to zero.

Speaker 1 (41:35):
Talking to mention it in sports, Joe Bricado, I think
double as the deepest field. If this makes sense, Joe,
double as the deepest. I think four A is the
most wide open.

Speaker 17 (41:43):
That's fair. It's a little bit difficult at this point
to really know what to make of Class A other
than we know Wahama is an excellent defending champion and
they've won twenty one games.

Speaker 5 (41:52):
In a row.

Speaker 17 (41:53):
We know that Wheeling Central is going to be an
absolute factor at the end. And if you're looking to
maybe cast one of the favorites, one of the two
favorites to make it to the championship game, Wheeling Central
is probably in that category. But yeah, getting back to
Double A, you know I mentioned the undefeated teams, but
you've got a Philip Barber team that's five and two.
They've posted a number of great victories in recent weeks.

(42:15):
Bluefield is five and two, and both of those teams
are probably going to be top four when the SSAC
new ratings come out tomorrow based on strength and schedule.
So there's at the top of Class Double A, you've
got a lot of teams that are in the mix.
You've got some one loss teams. Roan County played their
way to the championship game a year ago. James Monroe
has one loss. Oh Glenn Is off to a six

(42:35):
and one start, so there's lots of competition in Lntrel
has one loss as well. So you know you've got
right now at the top of Class double A, maybe
a dozen teams that think, you know, hey, hey, maybe
maybe it's our year.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
At your new sports Joe Barcado, how about an early
look ahead two week eight? What has your eye so far?

Speaker 17 (42:56):
I think certainly the matchup that I mentioned Logan in
Mingo Central meeting on Minor Mountain. It's rare for a
Week eight game to be a battle of undefeated teams,
but we will have that on Friday night when the
Miners play host to the Wildcats. And I think a
Quad A game is very interesting with the pair of
one loss teams in the MSAC. Huntington has won five
in a rowsin's dropping their season opener, They're going to

(43:17):
make the trip to Charleston to take on GW, and
obviously GW coming off their first loss of the season.
So I think those are probably two of the top matchups,
and then a pretty good one another one in double
A as well, with Midland Trails taking on James Moon Row,
both of those teams with just one loss each on
the year.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
Might I throw Spring Mills at University in that mix
as well, Joe, a couple of two loss teams. Hawks
had two hundred ninety five yards passing from Harrison Helbig
last week. Hawks have been playing great spring Mills, obviously
defending runners up from a year ago. So let me
throw that one in the mix out on Baker's Ridge
this Friday.

Speaker 17 (43:52):
Well, it is your show, so you certainly have the
creative license at which to do so. But yeah, absolutely
that one's in the mix as well. And I do
think another one quade versus A Triple A matchup undefeated
Princeton paying a visit to a four and two Beckley
team that has been playing some good ball recently, so
we got some good ones lined up for Friday night.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
It's getting interesting, start to play for playoff positioning, getting
in the top sixteen. It's a fun time of year.
And Joe Bracado, Greg Carey and the Metrogano Sports team
as a covered state across the state. Joe always appreciate it, buddy,
thank you so much.

Speaker 12 (44:28):
You got it.

Speaker 1 (44:28):
Thanks Dabe, take a break, wrap up our number one.
This is talk line from the Cove Insurance Studios.

Speaker 6 (44:33):
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Speaker 1 (45:50):
Second hour Betchineer's talk line. The new US Attorney for
the Northern District of West Virginia, Matt Harvey, will join
us and we'll talk to Larry Pac bottom of the
hour a little bit more about these the frustrations parents
are facing, how that's being remedied, steps we could take
in the future. We'll get into that with Larry coming
up eleven thirty three. Also, we'll get to some of

(46:12):
your text messages. I haven't had a lot of time
here in the first hour. We'll make up for that
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we almost almost made it through the entire first hour
without mentioning the government shut down, which is in day thirteen.

(46:57):
Is today day thirteen, No more wow, Today's Columbus Day.
So nobody in the government. Federal government was going to
be working today anyway, So no movement there. The earliest
we could see another vote in the Senate maybe tomorrow.
Shoulder shrug emoji. Second Hour Metro News talk Line is

(47:17):
coming up on Metro News. For forty years, the Voice
of West Virginia.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
Metro News talk line is presented by Encova Insurance, encircling
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Speaker 1 (47:41):
Second Hour of Metro News talk Line from the Encoba
Insurance Studios. Glad you could be part of the proceedings
eight hundred and seven to sixty five. Talk is the
phone number eight hundred seven sixty five eight two five
y five. You can text the show at three or
four talk three oh four. State treasure Ry Pack joins
this bottom of the hour I'll get to the neglected

(48:03):
text line throughout the hour as well. President Trump in
Egypt now addressing the media. In case you're wondering, there
are full six hours ahead. Why both the keble news
networks want to make certain we know that it is
in fact live. They have the time from Egypt this morning,
But I digress. President Trump is meeting with the media

(48:25):
again in Egypt ahead of that peace deal summit in Egypt.
Has already been to Israel, where he addressed the Israeli
Parliament earlier this morning concerning the peace deal and the
return of the twenty living hostages from hamas custody. Will
continue to follow that story as it unfolds this morning.

(48:45):
Last week, the Senate finally was able to confirm a
few appointments that involved West Virginians, including the new US
Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia. Former Jefferson
County Prosecutor Matt Harvey has stepped into that role, and
he joins us on a news talk line this morning. Matt,
good morning, congratulations.

Speaker 13 (49:04):
Thank you, Dave, good morning.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Not only was the Senate able to get your confirmation through,
you've been sworn in, so you are officially official on
the job, now officially official. Absolutely, yes, sir, So what's
still good? So let's go all the way back. What
started you down the road to pursue a career in law.

Speaker 13 (49:26):
Well, when I was in law school, I didn't have
any notion that I wanted to be a defense attorney
or a prosecutor. And during my internships between the summers
of law school, I interned back in my home county
of Monroe, and I really enjoyed it. And then as
I got out of law school and I explored my

(49:48):
career opportunities, I did go to work for a firm
doing insurance defense and representing businesses, and something seemed lacking,
and back in twenty excuse me, two thousand and five,
there was an opening in Berkeley County for an assistant
prosecutor position, so I applied for it. Unfortunately, I was
able to get that job, and then I spent four

(50:10):
years there before transitioning to Kanawa County as an assistant prosecutor.
When I was down there, I really missed the Panhandle
of West Virginia, which I wasn't familiar with until two
thousand and five until I moved up here, and so
I came back and went into private practice, and then
in twenty sixteen, I felt the calling to go into

(50:30):
public service as the elected prosecutor in Jefferson County, and
I got on the ballot and was fortunate enough that
the Jeffery County systems chose me to lead that office,
which I've done for the last eight years and ten
months until last Friday, or exchoose me last Wednesday when
I officially resigned. And it's just I always had a

(50:56):
desire for public service. I have a heart for that,
and I enjoy the work I enjoy making fighting for
West Virginias, be it in Jefferson County or my home
county of Monroe, or now the Northern District of West
Virginia so we can have a safe community to raise
our family.

Speaker 1 (51:13):
Talking about Harvey new US Attorney for the Northern District
of West Virginia, You're not just chosen randomly. The President
just doesn't pull a name out of the hat. You
have to express some interest in the job. So how
did you see this as an opportunity to continue that
career of public service you just talked about.

Speaker 13 (51:30):
First of all, it's on a much larger scale because
you're serving multiple counties instead of one, and you're representing
the United States, right instead of the state of West Virginia.
There's more resources to bring to bear. The cases are
equally as tragic as what we have in the state court,

(51:51):
but can be more complex because they go out of
the jurisdictions and the venues between the states. And it
just seems like a natural progression for now, I'm a
career prosecutor to want to be able to take the

(52:11):
fundamentals that I've learned prosecuting cases and the trid cases
in court and applying those to a larger swath of
the community.

Speaker 1 (52:19):
And I do.

Speaker 13 (52:20):
I love what Virginia I'm I'm born and raised here,
tendence to remain here, and you know, I'm concerned like
a lot of other people, of the brain drain, and
so you know, this is a small way to make
our community safe so people will either want to return
or remain here.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
Spoken to your predecessors who have held that job in
the Northern district in particular, from where I was doing
the local show in Morgantown for several years about the
flow of drugs into West Virginia. Here in the Morgantown area,
I mean, we talk about in the local news a
Detroit man being arrested. It's multiple times a week. I
would imagine it over in the Eastern Panhandle, it's probably Baltimore,

(53:02):
d C. Where drugs are flowing in. So, as the
US prosecutor, what is your role or where do you
see your role in trying to slow down and hopefully
stop that flow of drugs.

Speaker 13 (53:13):
In well, exactly one of the number one issues facing
West Virginians is the dangerous flow of illicit drugs into
our state. And that that was when I became a prosecutor,
and it remains today, except that the lethality of the
drugs has increased. Uh, there is a drop in overdose

(53:36):
rates at this at this time, and I believe that
the border policies that President Trump has enacted is helping
to curb the illicit the flow of illicit drugs. But
that doesn't mean that there's still not drugs flowing into
this And for example, uh, the Northern District per capita
has the highest FENTNL prosecutions in the nation. So when

(53:57):
I see that sort of data, and we'reteenth in the
nation as far as case slow, so I see that
there's still a great need in West Virginia to disrupt
and dismantle these sophisticated organizations.

Speaker 1 (54:09):
Would you say, the highest fitnal prosecutions in the country.

Speaker 13 (54:13):
Per capita per capita.

Speaker 1 (54:15):
Yes, that's startling. I mean, you know the problem, but
when you put it into some context like that, that's startling. Matt,
it is very startling.

Speaker 13 (54:24):
But it's a credit to the people that are in
the office, the career prosecutors doing the good work, that
they're being aggressive and tackling these issues that are facing
West Virginia. And David are the listeners may remember I've
recently stepped down as president or excuse me, chair of
the board of the West Virginia First Foundation, So you
know I've dived deep into this subject because it is

(54:47):
the number one issue facing West Virginia, and it has
been since the nineties when the opioids were dumped into
this state and we're here twenty five years later and
the overdose rates are trending down, but they're still way
too high.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
I guess I was looking at that maybe and we're
talking to Matt Harvey, by the way, a the US
Attorney for the Northern District. Maybe I was looking at
at glass half empty there, Matt, the fact that there
are so many of those prosecutions can also be a positive.
The fact that law enforcement is hopefully catching not just
the low level dealers, but the distributors, the traffickers who
are really bringing in the big amounts to the Mountain State.

(55:28):
Is that a fair statement.

Speaker 13 (55:30):
I think it's a very fair statement. We have extremely
hard working, long enforcement professionals that we partner with state
level and federal level. Not all cases go federal, the
bulk of them do stay in your local jurisdictions that
are prosecuted. And you know that's again as a former

(55:50):
county prosecutor, you know I have a great relationship with
the partners across the by now district that I represent
or serve excuse me, and so I look to use
that as a great benefit and tool in going forward
that we can leverage those partnerships and maybe see some
increased activity and prosecutions at the federal level as well as.

Speaker 9 (56:13):
At the state level.

Speaker 1 (56:14):
Matt Harvey's joining US new US Attorney for the Northern
District of West Virginia now former Jefferson County prosecutor. Who
is your mentor? Who is the is there a figure
in law that you've looked up to and kind of
you know, watched how they've gone about their business.

Speaker 13 (56:30):
There's there's many and that is the beautiful thing about
this this profession is and is that the mentor mentee relationship.
And it's unfortunate when you see a young attorney that
maybe had doesn't have that ability to have that relationship
with someone that can show them the way. I've been
blessed with many throughout my career. I can't name one,

(56:54):
because they've appeared in my life professionally when I've needed
them and I've I really value those relationships. And I
look at when I go to an office, I look
at who do I want, who's doing it right? Who
do I want to model my practice after? And and
you know, coming to Berkeley County back in two thousand

(57:15):
and five, I've had I've been introduced and worked alongside
a lot of incredible professionals that are dedicated to making
assistances of Wes Virginia Safe.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
Who was the first phone call when you found out
about the appointment?

Speaker 9 (57:27):
My mom?

Speaker 1 (57:29):
What did she say?

Speaker 9 (57:29):
Some mother?

Speaker 13 (57:30):
Absolutely, she was very excited and very proud as a mother.
I'm the youngest youngest sibling, and she was very proud
and it really struck her when I said, Mom, you know,
I just got to call from the White House. They're
picking me to be the next US attorney and I'm

(57:51):
just waiting on it, sitting on the President's desk to side,
and She's like, what, the President has to sign it,
and I was like, yes, Mom, he has to sign.
It's a presidential appointment. Was was sentate confirmation and uh,
it just it knocked her over then I think she
realized the gravity of the appointment.

Speaker 7 (58:12):
She was.

Speaker 13 (58:12):
And by the way, Dave, she was the first person
I called when I won my first election in twenty
and sixteen as well, So.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
You know, you can you just remind since you're the youngest,
just remind all the siblings, you know, Matt, hey treat
me right or you know, I'm just saying that charges
could come up there. I'm not saying you.

Speaker 9 (58:31):
Do that, but call her.

Speaker 13 (58:34):
I call her and she relaysed the message to Dad
for me. He's usually on the creek bank somewhere.

Speaker 1 (58:41):
That's not a bad place to be.

Speaker 7 (58:43):
Matt.

Speaker 13 (58:43):
Not a bad absolutely not.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Matt Harvey, US Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia.
So just today, the first day on the job, or
I guess it's Columbus day.

Speaker 18 (58:54):
Tomorrow will be the.

Speaker 13 (58:57):
As you know, in the in the office, and a
lot of administrative task I have to tackle first, like
you know, getting my swipe card, getting all the records
of paperwork filled out, and then just starting to get
briefed in and getting the lay of the land. It's
it's very exciting times for me.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
How much of the job is the administrative side of
it running the office, and how much of it is
actually getting into the court room and kind of doing
that thing that got you into the career to begin with.

Speaker 13 (59:25):
Well, I don't have a feel for it quite yet,
because there's been a during the process. We're not supposed
to have a lot of communications with the office that
we're potentially coming into. But I've worked with this office
for many, many years and so I have a little
feel for it. But when you have four offices spread

(59:46):
out the Northern District, it's going to be a lot
of administrative work. There will be opportunities for me to
get to court on certain cases that I choose, but
I don't have a feel for how much courtroom time
I'll actually get yet.

Speaker 4 (01:00:00):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Congratulations on the appointments and the confirmation and being sworn
in over the weekend, and I'm certain we'll get a
chance to talk as you serve in the Northern District here.
Thank you very much, Matt, Thank you, Dave. Good day
you as well. Matt Harvey, new US attorney for the
Northern District of West Virginia. We'll get to your text
next three or four. Talk three or four is the

(01:00:21):
text line. Eight hundred seven to sixty five Talk eight
hundred and seven sixty five eight two five five. That
is the phone number. This is talk line from the
en Cove Insurance Studios.

Speaker 19 (01:00:30):
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(01:00:55):
Visit WVHTF dot org. High Technology Foundation Aping West Virginia's future.

Speaker 15 (01:01:03):
We are there for you to care for you at
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Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
We are here. Text line is three or four Talk

(01:01:53):
three or four. Phone numbers eight hundred and seven sixty
five Talk Larry pack Stake Treasurer. Going to join us
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(01:02:16):
Remember citty net connects, protects and perfects. Three or four
talk three or four. Texter says a note from the
Eastern Panhandle. Matt served Jefferson County very well. He was
also a weekly guest on a Martinsburg radio station. He's
an example of what every parents would hope their son becomes.

(01:02:37):
Te TJ said last Tuesday that he'd be gone for
two days, so should he have been back on Friday?
Or at least today, has something changed. I think he
said he'd be gone a couple of days, the more
general couple of days. I think that's what he said.
I don't remember, but here be back tomorrow. Talk to
him this morning. He's fine, he's fine, he will rejoin

(01:02:57):
the festivities tomorrow. David, it seems that our homeschool system
has almost no viable supervision regarding the actual teaching, teaching results,
actual testing and system testing and reporting, etc. Could you
have someone explain the system of how we evaluate the
efficacy of the system itself and problems stated above. I
will give you the short answer, and I don't know

(01:03:19):
the intricate details, but there is a reporting system for
homeschool parents. They have to turn into portfolio. It has
to be evaluated for student. I said parents for students
homeschool families, I guess may be more accurate. But there
is a portfolio that has to be turned in. It
has to be evaluated by I believe, a county board
of education. There has to be teachers who evaluate. So, yes,
there are safeguards, guard rails to use a term that

(01:03:43):
seems to be a trigger point, but there are regulations
in effect to monitor these students to see how they
are teaching. And look. The draw of the homeschool programs
and homeschooling I am told by those who homeschool their
children is to get out of the public school system
and provide more custom educational experience, customized for particular individual children.

(01:04:10):
Whether that be just a custom educational experience because that's
how the kid learns, special need students, whatever the case,
that's the idea to get out of the public school
system to avoid the trappings and failings of that system.
When talking about very specific individual educational needs. That's anecdotal,
but that's what I hear from the folks that I

(01:04:30):
know who go down that rap, go down that route
three or four talk three or four. Home schooling gets
a laptop paid for by the state. Does public school
kids get free laptops for themselves? Question mark, Well, look,
they're not provided a laptop. What Brad mclheney was referencing earlier.
Using the Hope Scholarship funds to purchase school supplies, for example,

(01:04:56):
you may purchase a laptop using those funds, purchase other
pens and pencils may be purchased. School supplies can be
used to purchase those it can be purchased through the
Hope Scholarship. That's what Brad mcwen is referencing. No, you
don't get a state issued laptop. And I do believe

(01:05:17):
these days that public schools they get iPads or the
Android version. I think their iPads most places three or
four talk three or four. If homeschool families don't want
government involved in their kids' education, they should not take
government funds. I work for the state and everyone knows
the purchasing process takes time. That's a valid point. That's

(01:05:42):
a valid point, and I understand the frustration. But when
you are using government funds, you're using tax payer money.
And that's what Hope Scholarship money is. It is just
it is tax payer money that follows the child from
the public school system in the private sector, in the
private system, whether it's homeschooling or private school and the
private school. By the way, Brad McElhenny mentions this in

(01:06:02):
history at WDV metro News dot com. It's much more standardized,
so there's a lot less a lot less frustration there.
This is mainly a homeschooling issue because there are it
is so customizable, and the state has trying to build
flexibility into this system and this process, while at the
same time maintaining the integrity of the taxpayer funds. So

(01:06:26):
it's not used willy nilly, for lack of a better word,
I didn't want to use the word, but I did.
I don't know if it's two words or one. So
there isn't waste, fraud and abuse. So these systems are
in place. But when you're dealing with taxpayer money, and
you're dealing with the state government or any government entity,
there are going to be inefficiencies in the system. Now,

(01:06:48):
what can be done to minimize those? What can be
done to make the system more efficient, So parents who
are homeschooling their children are able to start lessons and
have them on a similar schools scale that starts mid August,
late August, early September. We'll ask Larry Pack. He's going
to join us coming up a couple of minutes from now.
The State Treasure. State Treasure's Office, of course, administers the

(01:07:12):
Hope Scholarship TDS. Meltdowns are on full display this morning,
says the texture you blind, hate filled. People really need help, Dave.
Here's a question, what exactly is the mid east East
of certainly not Southeast Asia or China, which are far
more populated and diverse in the Europe than the Europe

(01:07:33):
and the America's Mid Eastern values are todayo Christian Islamic values,
which are all part of the same ideology One God,
Now and forever right, asked the Texter, what are the
qualifications for homeschool parents? Can a tenth grade drop out
homeschool and eleventh grader? I don't know. I don't know.

(01:07:56):
I guess I can effort that Knawa County issues iPads,
Putnam County gives out chromebooks, says the texture. Okay, all right,
so we got both. That was my point that public
schools have moved toward. You know, the tablet is that
the general term we use now, Jake, the tablet three

(01:08:20):
or four? Talk three or four. Why doesn't the state
give money to public school kids for supplies? Pens and pencils?
Come out of my pocket? The school doesn't supply pens
and pencils. If they do, it's because a teacher bought them.
They do supplies desk and chalkboards and iPads and et cetera.
Three or four talk three or four is the text
line eight hundred and seven to sixty five eight two

(01:08:41):
five five the phone number. Larry Pack's going to join
us State Treasurer. We'll talk about some of these frustrations
Brad McElhenny wrote about in his story and the steps
being taken to alleviate those and what could be done
as we move forward. Plus more of your texts coming up.
This is talk Line from the Cove Insurance Studios. Phone
numbers eight hundred seven sixty five Talk eight hundred and seven,

(01:09:01):
six five, eight two five five. You can text the
show at three or four Talk three or four talk Line.
Metro News for forty years the voice of West Virginia.
It is eleven thirty times to get a news update.
Let's check in on the Metro News radio network. Find
out what's happening across the great state of West Virginia.

Speaker 8 (01:09:21):
West Virginia Metro News. I'm Jeff Chenkin. State Treasurer Larry
Pak says there are reasons for delays when it comes
to five thousand homeschooling families in West Virginia receiving school
supplies as part of the state's Hope Scholarship program.

Speaker 20 (01:09:32):
We think we're the only state that does not restrict
what can be bought. In other words, we allow our
parents to basically buy anywhere they won't buy from anywhere
they want to, right from any vendor they want to.
But that slows things down because we have to get

(01:09:53):
the approvals. We have to make the connections.

Speaker 8 (01:09:55):
Dozens of homeschool parents have written letters of concern to
the state. Recently, Metro Newstate White correspondent Brad Machalhey as
that story at our website. Randolph County may not be
done closing schools. A county school board voto last week
the close Harmon School in North Elementary at the end
of this school year. Superintendent Sean Diey says the county's
been hurt by dropping student enrollment with no corresponding changes

(01:10:16):
in the state school aid formula. No seeking religious exemptions
for school kid vaccination requirements in West Virginia haven't had
to provide a lot of information to get the exemption.
State epidemiologist Shanna McBee testified during last week's vaccination court
hearing in Raleigh County Circuit Court. She says the state
does not check the sincerity of a person's religious belief.

Speaker 4 (01:10:34):
Really is no.

Speaker 21 (01:10:35):
Threshold as long as thursdating that they look like a
religious exemption.

Speaker 8 (01:10:41):
We got that an update on that story also at
our website this morning. You're listening to Metro News for
forty years, the voice of West Virginia.

Speaker 16 (01:10:48):
What you doing out there?

Speaker 22 (01:10:49):
Come on, I saw you at the game the other night. Yeah,
you up there getting mad, acting like we're all out
there making a million a game. Let me be real
with you.

Speaker 1 (01:10:59):
This isn't the pros.

Speaker 22 (01:11:01):
It's school sports and it's a game, our game. So
please let us play school sports fans.

Speaker 1 (01:11:08):
Remember when you cheer for your team, make noise for
the right reasons.

Speaker 19 (01:11:12):
This message presented by the NFHS and the NI Triple A.

Speaker 14 (01:11:16):
And all student athletes in West Virginia.

Speaker 21 (01:11:18):
A new episode of Live Healthy West Virginia is now
posted on the podcast center of wv metronews dot com
and the Metro News TV app.

Speaker 1 (01:11:25):
A new concussion program gives VIP treatment to domestic violence survivors.

Speaker 23 (01:11:30):
When we did a study of domestic violence survivors, the
most common response to how many concussions they had was
too many to count. They had lost count.

Speaker 21 (01:11:39):
Listen to Live Healthy West Virginia for candid conversations with
insights for improving your Health and well Being. Live Healthy
West Virginia is presented by WVU Medicine.

Speaker 8 (01:11:48):
Morgantown Mayor Danielle Trumbull says the possible creation of an
authority to oversee the day to day operations at the
Morgantown Municipal Airport is something worth looking at.

Speaker 24 (01:11:56):
I am open to that conversation. Certainly, any saying that
would help us get closer and closer to that funding
gap that we're experiencing for the runway extension. I think
that that's probably a long term conversation.

Speaker 8 (01:12:10):
The Monengay County Commission wants to be on the other
side of that conversation. From the Metro News anchor desk,
I'm Jeff Jenkins.

Speaker 1 (01:12:38):
Or if your texts coming up at three or four
talk three oh four, eight hundred and seven sixty five
eight two five five eight hundred seven sixty five eight
two five five. That's is the phone number. Brad Macklelhenny
joined us last hour. He detailed the story he has
posted at WP metro news dot com. Parents of homeschool
families have sent dozens of written messages to express frustration

(01:12:59):
over the the online purchasing system for school supplies through
Hope Scholarship, which of course, provides financial support for families
pursuing education outside the public school system. The Hope Scholarship
as administered through the West Virginia Treasurer's Office and the
Treasurer of the Great State of West Virginia joins us
Larry Pack Larry, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (01:13:19):
Beant, Good morning, Dave.

Speaker 1 (01:13:20):
How are you doing well? Just we talked a brad
about this, but just what are some of the frustrations
you have heard from homeschool parents as they try to
navigate this system.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
Well, I think it's I think a lot of it
is really just based upon the urgency, the passion, particularly
our homeschool families, and particularly in the beginning of the
school year. So like a lot of parents, you know,
I'm parents, Our dad has six children. You know, once
we get around mid August, we're ready to go, right,

(01:13:50):
ready to get the school year started. Want to make
sure our chill and get a good start, a healthy
start of the school year. And that's where our homeschool
parents are. And and so you know, the money doesn't
become available to homeschool parents to spend until August fifteenth, right,
so they're ready to go, really really quickly, but yet
it takes us a little bit of time to basically

(01:14:12):
process all those orders and items and so forth. And
I think we got about fifty thousand items. I think
it requested within that first couple of week periods. So
there's a big crunch that happens right at the right
when the gates of the gates open the first of
the years. So what again, what parents want is, you know,
they want the Amazon effect, right, That's what we're all

(01:14:34):
used to now, right, is is I'm a big reader,
so I want to want to order a book that
I'm interested in. I want to get that book tomorrow
two days later at most. Well, our system is a
little bit slower, but our system is also very very unique.
And as far as I know, we're the only state
that doesn't restrict where and what our parents can buy.

(01:14:58):
So we have a very open system, uh as far
as to make sure the parents get to choose the
path that they want. But the open system UH creates uh,
you know, con our confidence, but creates a lot of
complexities because they can buy a French book or Chinese
book or whatever they want to buy, uh. And then

(01:15:19):
if it's something new, something unusual, then we've got to
vet it a little bit, so it just just again
is a big crunch, but we are making progress. A
lot of the system worked a lot better than it
did last January. It definitely looked a lot better than
then last August. Again, I was in Governor Justice Office
last August. But uh, you know, there were a lot

(01:15:41):
of problems in the initial year of the roll out
of this particular vendor. Uh. A lot of these problems
have been solved, but we're still not satisfied. We're going
to continue to work to make sure that the uh
that the impact of the parents, that the the but
but the the basically from a parent standpoint, that they
get what they want when they wanted. We're already kind

(01:16:02):
of reviewing what happened this August, putting in new changes
for next next September. So we hear the parents. We
take every complaint, concern, inquiry serious. We try to respond
as quickly as we can. Uh, but we'll not be
satisfied until we can take care of every every wish
for each parent.

Speaker 1 (01:16:23):
Larry Pack State Treasurer joining us. So, what are some
of the issues you've identified and how do you plan
to address those moving forward?

Speaker 3 (01:16:31):
Well, it's part of it, part of it. There's kind
of three parts. But what we can control in our
office with a particular vendors, we're asking the vendor to
continue to invest in their technology to make the technology smoother,
more seamless, more responsive, and and so far in my tenure,
again I've only been through this since January. They have

(01:16:52):
they have met the they've met the charge that we've
given them. They continue to increase and improve over what
they did you know, the week before, the month before,
So we were asking them to continue to increase in
their technology. We're also trying to work just to make
sure that from our standpoint and from the parents standpoint,
that we all understand exactly how this works and how

(01:17:14):
the systems works. So we had a lot of new
parents come into the system, and I think, you know,
the more exucation, the more outreutes that we do with
them so they understand how it works. I think that helps.
And we're we've also asked the vendor to put more
manpower on during these crunch times. Now they did they really,
I think they doubled or tripled what they had last January.
This August, we're going to ask them to continue to

(01:17:36):
make sure that they've got plenty of people available to
get us through this crunch. It took about two weeks
to get through the crunch this time. Not that we
answered every problem, but but two weeks to get to
it this time. Would definitely like to reduce that. So
it's just continued communications, continue to work. It's also continued
to be humble and realizing the myth that hey, we're
not perfect. We can always approve, say Treasurer.

Speaker 1 (01:17:57):
Larry Pack joining us here on metroing his top line,
is it just a legislative dates that July fifteenth is
the date that money comes to the Treasure's office and
then it's released on August fifteenth. Could that be moved
through legislative action?

Speaker 3 (01:18:13):
Well, you know, I said, I was in the legislature
a couple of years, and I'm perhad I was there
when this bill has passed. And I think one of
the things the legislature could do for for for a
lot of agencies or a lot of programs, is stopped
putting so many restrictions and so many requirements in the
law allow allow most of the particulars to go going

(01:18:34):
through regulations so that we can more easily change things
versus having to get a law changed. But there's a
lot of requirements in that law that says you got
to do this this way, you got to do it
by this time. That really does have really does create
create some problems and some issues for us. So I'm
hopeful with some of these days, whenever we decide or

(01:18:56):
the legislature or the governor decides that they want to
kind of kind of review where hope scholarship is how
what all the great things we've done, what the things
we do improvement that we'll we'll make some suggestions that
we think might might help. But but we're balancing, you know,
kind of we're balancing a couple of things. Whenever we've
set hope up one hand, we're balancing the the uh

(01:19:17):
experience for the parents. Right, we want to be responsive
to the parents.

Speaker 4 (01:19:20):
UH.

Speaker 3 (01:19:21):
We're also going to make sure that we're being good
stewards of the money uh that that taxpayers have worked
really hard to pay the money in. Right, So the
money comes from taxpayers. Every dial of taxes they pay,
they've worked hard for that money. So we'll make sure
that we're being good stewards stewards there. But then on
the third thing. The third issue you have is this
is also a cash flow issue for the for the

(01:19:42):
state government and the way state government money comes in.
So there's there's you know, you're trying to balance three
or four things at one time. But but I do
think that we're we've made a mistake in a lot
of issues where we've put what I would call regulations
or procedures in law, and we need to we need
to probably stop doing that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:02):
Larry Pack joining us at the State Treasurer. We're talking
about the Hope scholarship funds and uh, the frustrations of
homeschool parents trying to work their way through this process.
How much of this is just a learning curve? I mean,
the Hope scholarships not that old.

Speaker 3 (01:20:16):
Larry, Oh, it's it is. It is that you know,
we're again we're we're we're flying airplane and and and
building it at the same time. So, so what West
Virginia have. We have the most open educational stavies plan
in the country and and we've made it even more open,
not just because of the eligibility, but also by how
uh the the I'll say, the non private schools parents,

(01:20:38):
how they have so much flexibility and how to spend
their spend their money, and it does create complexities that
there's definitely some growth pains going on. But technology keeps
getting better, the parents keep uh, you know, learning more
about how to work through the system. The vendors are
getting getting sharper about it. I think our team is
al so everybody's really working really hard. And and again,

(01:20:58):
you know the complaint we had, the concerns that were
said to us. They were dozens, okay, out of out
of thousands, But that doesn't discount so those dozens are important, right,
This doesn't discount that that we don't need to respond
to those dozens. So it is getting much better, but
there are growing pains. But again, we're also a government agency,

(01:21:19):
and I think people are people understand that you will
never get perfection. Heal at the government agency.

Speaker 1 (01:21:24):
Larry Pack joining us. I believe it was the Arkansas
that Brad said in his story actually dropped theopay as
a vendor because they were unsatisfied with the service. Is
that an option is the vendor on a set of requirements.

Speaker 3 (01:21:38):
Here, well, we've got a three year contracts that we're
in year number two again to the theopay the situation
with Arkansas. I don't know a lot about it, but
it happened about about a year before I came in
the office. I don't know what it was that to
particular vendors was growing too fast, or maybe they over
promised with Arkansas, but Arkansas didn't like the direction they're

(01:22:00):
going and they switched out. Well, we really did the
same thing a couple of years ago. This is our
second vendor, and so the first vendor came in, Treaser
Moore was not pleased with their performance, and year number one,
he canceled that contract and he went to the new vendor,
the vendor we have now. So we're absolutely always open
to making a change if we think a change is necessarily.

(01:22:20):
But right now again we're year two or three year contract,
and so we'll start sometime this winter kind of evaluating
trying to decide, okay, when we're going to bid it
out again, what are we looking for and what's out there.
So we continue to be very good stewards of West
Virginia's money, but we do want the parents that had
a really good, really good experience.

Speaker 1 (01:22:42):
State Treasurer Larry Pack Larry always appreciate the time, thanks
for joining us this morning.

Speaker 3 (01:22:47):
Have a good Dave, thanks a lot man, do as well.

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
Three or four Talk three or four. That's the text line.
Eight hundred seven to sixty five Talk eight hundred seven
six five eight two five five. That is the phone number.
We'll turn the rest of the show over to you.
Is talk line from the in COVID Short Studios.

Speaker 21 (01:23:02):
A new episode of Live Healthy West Virginia is now
posted on the podcast center of wv metronews dot com
and the metro News TV app. A new concussion program
gives VIP treatment to domestic violence survivors.

Speaker 23 (01:23:14):
When we did a study of domestic violence survivors, the
most common response to how many concussions they had was
too many to count. They had last count.

Speaker 21 (01:23:23):
Listen to Live Healthy West Virginia for candid conversations with
insights for improving your health and well being. Live Healthy
West Virginia is presented by WVU Medicine.

Speaker 16 (01:23:33):
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(01:23:54):
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Speaker 2 (01:24:14):
Metro News talk Line is presented by Encova Insurance and
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Visit Encova dot com to learn more.

Speaker 1 (01:24:26):
Let's go to the text line three oh four Talk
three oh four. Uh please, efforts is not a verb,
says the text Did I say that or did Larry
Pax say that? You know, because a texture and this
may be the same texture. I'm not sure. Uh pointed
that out that uh, efforts is not a verbs. We

(01:24:48):
say that we're efforting that I'm efforting that, And I
thought about it for a minute when the textra pointed
that out to me. I don't know how long ago,
that's been, weeks, months ago, whatever, And I thought, you know,
they're right, and I don't like that either. And I've
tried my best to eliminate that from the lexicon. So
if I said I was efforting something, I do apologize.

(01:25:10):
I will try to do better, texter says, fat County
issues LA laptops to all students. The kids don't keep
tablets the school's issue, so they are not there still
county property. And if schools provide supplies, why the heck
am I still buying them? Asked the texter. Why doesn't

(01:25:33):
the state give money to public school kids for supplies?
Pens and pencils come out of my pocket. The school
doesn't supply pens and pencils. If they do, it's because
the teacher. But did I read that one already? I
may have Each teacher gets four hundred dollars a year
for supplies for their classrooms for the children. If the
children are required to have certain supplies, the board office
buys them. Many churches and charities have donated tons and

(01:25:53):
tons of supplies to each of the schools every year.
The text did not have a valid point. Homeschoolers are
taxpayers too. There's no such thing as government funds. They
all come from the taxpayer, and the public school system
should not have a monopoly on receiving funds, especially given
the lousy job they are doing. I believe when I
said the Texter had a point. The point was government

(01:26:17):
funds are incredibly inefficient, or using them is incredibly inefficient.
That was just my point that if you are going
to accept taxpayer money and the form of the Hope Scholarship,
then there are there are going to be processes that
go along with that that are probably going to be
cumbersome and inefficient, because anything that involves funding coming from

(01:26:41):
the government, funding coming from public taxpayer coffers is generally
cumbersome and inefficient because you want to make certain, to
the best of your ability that the money is going
to what it is intended to be used for. In
this case, that would be the educational experience of the students.
We're big on waste, fraud, and abuse right at the moment,

(01:27:05):
so we're trying to head that off on the front
end so that Hope Scholarship funds are not being used
to buy a new tree stand for hunting season. I
don't know that anybody's tried that, but I'm just trying
to throw something out there so that Hope Scholarship funds
that are being used for homeschool children are being used
for the educational experience curriculum, school supplies. Whatever it takes

(01:27:29):
to homeschool that child effectively. So along with that's going
to come a process. It's going to be cumbersome, and
when you try to build flexibility into that so that
you are not hampered by what is generally again, when
we're talking about using government taxpayer coffers can be inflexible

(01:27:50):
and hard to deal with. Trying to make that flexible
enough so you can get the supplies that you need,
get the curriculum you want, whatever the case may be,
There's going to be some growing pains there. There's going
to be some frustrations. I get it. You do your part,
You get in there on August fifteenth, soon as that
money is available, you make your order, and you want
to get those supplies so you can get started when
you want to get started, and be held up through

(01:28:12):
no fault of your own. I get it. I understand
the frustration. Can I take my tax money and pay
for my niece to go to a charter school? Don't
think it works that way, Dave. I know I'm beating
a dead horse, but I really object to my state
tax dollars going to fund homeschooling or charter or private

(01:28:33):
schools not gonna be the answer you want to hear.
I get it, I understand it. But we don't get
to use our tax dollars when I or actually my
wife does the income tax returns, she's an accountant. When
she does the income tax returns, you don't get to earmark,

(01:28:53):
you know, what I'd like my tax dollars to be
spent on. It's not like when you make a donation
to your your your university. Wow, that was so hard
to say, Jake at an omer Fud moment there. You know,
like when you make the university donation, you say I
would like my donation to go toward nil. Uh, you know,

(01:29:17):
athletic facilities. You don't get to do that with your
tax dollars, much as we'd like to do that with
our tax dollars. Not the way it works. But I understand.
I do understand what you're saying. Though there are things
that I say, I really don't like my tax dollars
going to pay for. But that's why we have legislators.
That's where you have the ability to change that or

(01:29:38):
stop that, or direct tax dollars where you want. You
got to. They make those priorities, but those priorities are
based on what you should or those priorities should be
based on what you tell them. All right, we'll get
to some more texts. We'll wrap things up on a
Monday morning. Tell you what's coming up the rest of
the day as well. This is a talk line from
the Enco Insurance studios Big News West Virginia.

Speaker 25 (01:29:59):
The City Near Network is growing or expanding our lightning
fast network to more towns across the mountain state with
new plans to fit every budget and lifestyle. Just want
the basics to keep in touch, We've got you covered.
Want a stream game and work at speeds up to
ten gigs, We've got that too, and our new app
puts you in control, set parental controls, manage your WiFi,
and keep your home network running like a champ. Reach

(01:30:19):
out now to sign up, and if we're not your
area yet, we'll let you know when we are and
put you at the top of the installed schedule. Visit
citynet dot net today.

Speaker 18 (01:30:28):
Days, evenings, weekends and holidays. You can't predict when you'll
get sick or heard, but WVU Medicine Urgent Care is
prepared to help when you do. Our team treats minor
illnesses and injuries and perform services like on site lab
and imaging, vaccinations and sports physicals. WVU Medicine is ready

(01:30:48):
to assist you and your family when life happens. Define
the closest location near you. Visit Wvumedicine dot org slash
urgent Care.

Speaker 1 (01:31:22):
Metro News Midday Coming up next on many of these
same Metro News radio stations, Rabbi Adam Berman will join
David Amanda on set again. Another historic day in Israel,
mid East Peace Summit occurring in Egypt. President Trump is

(01:31:44):
there greeting world leaders, so Rabbi Adam Berman will be
on set. Coming up Metro News mid Day, Steve Cotton,
the Voice of the Herd, will join the gang after
Marshall's win over Old Dominion. Also, congratulations to all those
guys being inducted at and girls inducted into the West
Virginia Broadcasting Hall of Fame. I believe those induction ceremonies

(01:32:04):
are set for tomorrow night. Oddly enough, you all listening
on one of our great radio affiliates across the state
don't know this, but if you're watching Metro News TV,
we have all these cameras in this studio and the
one in Charleston, and I have a monitor up here.
You'll see me glancing up to my left occasionally where
I can see all of those camera shots. So Dave

(01:32:26):
Allen and aman of Baron don't know it, but I
can see them going through their final preparations for Metro
News Midday coming up in just a couple of minutes.
It's a little creepy. I gotta admit it's a little creepy. Jake.
I can see Jake the video producer. Yeah, yeah, I
can see him. There's like three four cameras down there,
and I can see that Dave Allen has done absolutely

(01:32:49):
zero prix. He's not even in the studio, that's how
little he is prepped. But you know, this is what
we should expect from Dave Allen. Love you, Dave three
or four top three or four. Let me get a
couple of text messages in before we call it to day. Dave,
Hope scholarships equal no pay raises for public employees, no
money for state projects. Hope scholarships making the rich more wealthy.

(01:33:10):
To public school children keep their tablets where they school property,
believe their school property. Uh. Texter says, hey, you did,
I did effort, But like, hey, I'm still trying to
eliminate like from my speech. Amen to that one, Amen
to that one. Please distinguish between private pay traditional homeschoolers

(01:33:34):
and Hope scholarship school or homeschoolers. They are not all
the same. They have different requirements. They are not the same.
If a family chooses to accept Hope money to homeschool,
that is their business, but they must also accept the
issues in dealing with these kinds of problems. It is
the traditional private pay homeschoolers who want no governmental interference.
They are not the same, says the text. The texter's

(01:34:00):
point was at homeschooling that we're keeping their children of
public education, should keep them out of government funds. That's
almost word for word. Text to talk can sometimes be
a hindrance. Dave, I don't have kids, but I sure
do pay plenty of taxes. Can I have some of
that money since I don't have any kids in public education?

(01:34:22):
Cannot be trickled back to me for not having kids
and burdening the system. So when the homeschool private charter
school children graduate, are their parents fine with going back
to having their taxes go to public school or will
our legislature decide it's choice of the taxpayer. You will
get the final word. Met New's Midday Coming up Next,

(01:34:44):
it's metro News talk Line or metro News the Voice
of West Virginia.

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